Vaughn Palmer: Public bargaining between teachers, government leads to predictable results

The B.C. Liberals' latest contract offer for teachers disrespects the recent B.C. Supreme Court ruling, as well as students and teachers, says BCTF president Jim Iker.

Photograph by: wayne leidenfrost
, Vancouver Sun

VICTORIA — As if provincial schools needed another stress point, the day began with B.C. Teachers’ Federation president Jim Iker announcing that the union was scheduling a strike vote for next week.

His rationale cited two recent provocations in ongoing bargaining on the teachers contract, both of which he blamed directly on the B.C. Liberal government.

He complained that the government side had tabled a meagre wage increase for teachers that fell well short of settlements for other public sector workers.

He also accused the Liberals of once again trying to strip out contract protections on class size and composition, mere weeks after losing that issue in court for the second time.

“The move to once again strip class size, composition, and staffing levels from teachers, just days after the B.C. Supreme Court’s ruling, showed total disrespect for the law, for teachers, and for students,” said Iker.

Though teachers have been without a contract since last June, he nevertheless said the strike vote was intended as a wake-up call for the government, not cause for public alarm in the current school year.

“We will consider all job action options and timing very carefully,” said the union leader. “We’re hoping the pressure of a strike vote will be enough to get the government to bring something serious to the table.”

The news was not long in getting the government’s attention, in the person of Education Minister Peter Fassbender, who summoned reporters to his office in Victoria shortly after Iker finished speaking in Vancouver.

“Well, I’m disappointed,” the minister began. “I think this is very provocative as far as our process in bargaining goes, and I am disappointed on behalf of the people in British Columbia that this vote was called.”

He was disappointed at the union provocation? Didn’t it occur to him and his cabinet colleagues that it might be provocative to try to reopen the very contract provisions that were restored by the court, so soon after the judgment was rendered in Jan. 27?

“I’m not going to speak to the details of what was discussed at the table,” replied Fassbender, not denying that the government had indeed taken up the issues of class size and composition.

He didn’t see the issue as a non-starter after losing it twice in court?

“I believe the court process has to continue,” replied the minister. “We have filed our appeal. But again, I have said clearly ever since we were elected as government our goal is to reach a long-term agreement, to find a negotiated settlement. We have a track record in this province over 13 years with other public sector unions of finding negotiated settlements. That’s what we want with the BCTF.”

The record speaks for itself with most other public sector unions in most bargaining rounds. But teachers have been the notable exception, albeit not only with this Liberal government.

Wasn’t Fassbender worried that the public might conclude, as per the court finding on the last bargaining round, that once again the Liberals were trying to provoke a teachers strike?

“Quite honestly, we didn’t provoke anything. It is the teachers that are calling for a strike vote, not the government. We were at the table. We’re asking them to stay at the table with us, but they’ve chosen to take this step.”

Why should the public believe him on that score? “I guess all I can say is our actions speak for themselves,” he replied, which can be taken different ways depending on your read of the government’s handling of the teachers over the years.

If the talks collapse or a strike arises, is a legislated settlement the fallback option for the government here, as it has been in the past?

“I’m not going to speculate on anything at this stage,” Fassbender replied. So he wasn’t ruling out legislation? “I’m not going to speculate on anything at this stage.”

Got it, minister.

The Liberals weren’t done for the day. Stung by Iker’s well-targeted foray into the realm of bargaining in public, the government set out its chief negotiator, Peter Cameron, for some of the same.

An experienced hand at the bargaining table with the Liberals and the previous New Democratic Party government, Cameron made some good points.

He challenged the union to table its own proposal for a wage increase while predicting, on the basis of hints at the bargaining table, that it would be “extreme” and “hard to justify in the public.”

As for the government attempt to reopen class size and composition, he noted that B.C. Supreme Court Justice Susan Griffin, in restoring contract language to where it stood in 2002, did not say it could never be renegotiated. Rather, she said the opposite: “This does not guarantee that the language is clad in stone.”

He seemed to be making a bit of mischief, too, in suggesting that the premature strike talk might provoke parents “who are thinking of yanking their kids out of the public school system.”

Less effective were Cameron’s repeated complaints that the union had violated collective bargaining protocols by going public. “So what,” one had to say.

The BCTF, as has been observed many times, is a public sector union like no other. But the Liberals, with their hamfisted ways, have only strengthened the organization and lately filled it with an impressive resolve.

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